9 weeks, 6 days...

Our long road with infant reflux is continuing. She started to show a very very slight improvement on the Prilosec, but shortly after we went to see the GI Specialist. He decided to move her to 10mgs (5mgs 2times daily) of Prevacid solutabs and ordered an endoscopy to look at her esophagus. We started the Prevacid on October 8th and went in for the endoscopy on October 9th. The endoscopy showed severe thrush (yeast) on her throat, esophagus and stomach, which would explain why she was screaming through every feeding from pain. We started 1ml of Nystatin plus a cheek swab 4 times per day on October 9th. By October 10th when we went to the pumpkin patch, we were already seeing improvement from the Prevacid. Each subsequent day we saw more and more improvement including her first smile (October 11th), giggle, coo and signs of her noticing every color and light near or around her. She started looking and studying us, doing well in her car seat, bouncer and swing and even laid in her crib for the first time for about an hour. By October 14th you could hardly tell she even had reflux anymore. That night we put her in her room in her swing to sleep the night by herself (instead of on us) for the first time. She made it from 10 - 6am (with feedings included) by herself. It seemed going into the weekend and my birthday that we were on the road to recovery and ready to finally start our lives together as a happy healthy family.

On my 29th bday we started giving her half of her bottles with the powder version of Good Start and half still the ready-to-feed. That night she even slept from 11 - 5a without waking up (in her swing too!) which was huge for her. All seemed to be going well until Sunday night, the 18th, when she started having flare ups. Flare ups are common with reflux babies so I didn't think anything of it until it progressively got worse. Her quiet long nights in her swing were no longer and she kept grunting and groaning in pain.

Today is October 20th and it's only about 10 days later than our first great day at the Pumpkin patch and we are now right back at the starting line where we were about 2 weeks ago. At 3am last night I moved her back to all ready-to-feed formula fearing that she was just not handling the change to the powder well. I wish it was that simple, but if she wasn't handling the powder well, then why did it take her over 48 hours to have reflux symptoms associated with it? I've been told her dose of Prevacid is too low for her age and weight, but why did it work for a week and then just stop? She couldn't have gained more than an ounce or two in 1 week, so it can't be her weight. I've put in an email to her GI doc and I'm waiting to hear back about where we go from here.

At her last doctor's appointment on 10/12 when she got her 2 month shots she weighed 8lbs, 9.8oz and was 20 and 3/4 inches long. Her hair seems to be getting lighter and her eyebrows and eyelashes are now fully in. She's laughed twice (in my presence), smiles, coos, and loves to watch TV (baby Einstein, cartoons) and the ceiling fan. She sometimes reacts to being tickled and loves Elliott the elephant and another blue elephant she has that remains nameless. She's also really entertained by her baby Einstein gym. She lifts her head and holds it up for at least a few seconds. She gets frustrated because she wants to crawl, flip, move, but can only slide herself up.
Aside from the reflux her biggest issue is with burping. She doesn't eat as much as she wants to because we can't get her to burp. Then she continually gets hungry 1.5-2.5 hours later. We've tried many "holds" to get her to burp and sometimes they work, but most of the time they don't. Plus it's not good to move a reflux baby all over the place because it just causes flare ups. So depending on the feeding she's eating anywhere from 2 - 4oz, but hovers mostly around 3. Some late night feedings when she's sleepy and doesn't feel good she will take as little as 1.5 and every once in a while has a spike and eats 4.5. About once a day she goes 4 hours between a feeding, but pretty much still sticks to the every 3 hour rule. On October 17th she ate the most she ever has, 5.5oz.

She's finally comfortably fitting into her 0-3 month outfits. Bye-bye newborn clothes and diapers! She still hates her infant seat but as of last week when she was her happiest she could tolerate her bouncer for about 20-30 mins. She didn't like sleeping in her crib but I suspect it's because she can't be on her back (she just gets herself all upset and ends up sliding down off of the wedge we have in there to help her). We were going to try crib sleep training again in another couple of weeks, but with her condition taking a downturn, we've obviously decided to wait. And finally, she likes taking a bath! She's made it through the past 3 baths without crying or screaming!

So that's where we are now at 10 weeks!